The benchmark VN-Index increased 0.22 per cent to close at 1,039.01 points, expanding weekly gains to 4.6 per cent.

On the Hà Nội Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index edged up 0.73 per cent to end at 119.86 points. The northern market index decreased 1.18 per cent on Thursday.

The market rose throughout the week with the biggest gains on Monday and Tuesday. After that, the index underwent certain fluctuations due to profit-taking pressure during the last three sessions.

A total of 192.1 million shares, worth over VNĐ5.1 trillion (US$224 million), were traded across the two markets.

Overall market condition was also negative with the number of decliners outnumbering gainers (239-211), while another 290 closed unchanged.

According to Bảo Việt Securities Company, liquidity fell to below the moderate level in Friday’s session and market breadth was negative.

Investors turned cautious when the index approached the resistance zone around 1,040-1,065. The index was influenced by the fluctuation of large-cap stocks, which resulted in a strong divergence among stock groups, it said.

The stock groups that took turns leading the market were banking, securities, and real estate.

The newly-listed share Techcombank (TCB) on Friday unexpectedly surged up to the ceiling price of VNĐ105,200 per share, and there were over 2 million shares matched.

In addition, another lender VPBank (VPB), continued to show strength, increasing 4.6 per cent Friday to VNĐ51,800 per share. It has made a weekly gain of 5.3 per cent.

However, wide divergence in major stocks was still clear. Vincom Retail (VRE), Masan Group (MSN), HDBank (HDB) and PetroVietnam Gas JSC (GAS) tumbled on Friday, slowing down the growth of indices.

The UPCOM Index on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) edged up 0.07 per cent to finish at 53.81 points. It had dropped 0.01 per cent on Thursday.

BVSC said in its daily report that after two consecutive weeks of strong rises, the VN-Index is forecast to have a week of challenges next week.

“Key information likely to affect the stock market next week includes the results of the Fed’s meeting, restructuring of two ETF portfolios (June 15th) and information about H1.2018 business outlooks of enterprises,” it said.